The LiquidPlanner Blog

What We’re Reading This Week: The Gig Economy and the Future of Work

So much has been made about the future of work, from the rise of the 1099 “gig” worker to the employee who works one full-time job and moonlights in another. Not sure either of these things are really new, but the data doesn’t lie. More than 53 million Americans, or about a third of all U.S. workers have a second job. Why?

One theory is that as the economy slips, so does labor churn. More and more people worry about leaving an existing job, so they stay for the sake of stability even if this means missing an opportunity to find new, higher paying work. Given this, it’s no big surprise that financial fear could be a major contributing factor to why people choose to take on additional work.

The other theory is that the future of work is a technological creation. New tools and technologies (read: Internet) have given people the freedom to work when, where and how they like. Services like Uber can be turned on or off at will—giving drivers the freedom to work on their own schedule. Web-based tools that enable teams to work together from anywhere are steadily chipping away at the notion that everyone has to be in the same office.

No matter how you interpret the future of work, it’s time to abandon the idea that the new way to work is still a long way off. The future is here, and it’s up to you decide how to make it work.